1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of wireless communication. More particularly, the present invention relates to the field of assigning addresses to subscriber stations in a wireless communication environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A wireless communication network includes one or more base stations deployed over a geographical region to provide wireless connectivity to subscriber stations within a coverage area of respective base stations. Basically, each base station in the wireless communication network is configured to provide various types of services (e.g., voice, data, multimedia services, and the like) to subscriber stations (also known as subscriber stations) that are operating within the geographical area served by the wireless communication network.
Typically, a base station assigns a unicast address from a unique address space to each subscriber station when the subscriber station in its coverage area registers with a wireless area network. The unicast address is unique across subscriber stations registered with the same base station. For example in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.16m based standard, a base station assigns a 12 bit Station Identifier (STID) to each subscriber station registered with the base station.
Basically, the base station assigns the unicast address to enable each subscriber station to communicate with the base station. For example, the subscriber station scrambles physical bursts using the assigned unicast address and transmits the scrambled physical burst in uplink. Also, the base station uses the unicast address to send a dedicated downlink control channel (e.g., control channel carrying resource allocation message in downlink). It can be noted that, the base station removes the assigned unicast address when the respective subscriber station deregisters with the wireless communication network.
Currently, an IEEE 802.16m based system allows a base station to register up to 4096 subscriber stations with the wireless communication network. In recent times, the IEEE 802.16m based system is configured to support machine-to-machine communication devices for applications such as smart grid, vehicular tracking, healthcare, and the like. Sometimes, this requires a base station to register more than 4096 subscriber stations at a time due to large number of machine to machine communication devices existing within coverage area of the base station. However, the base station may not be able to register more than 4096 subscriber stations due to limitation in number of unicast addresses (e.g., 12 bit STID) available for assignment.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and system for assigning addresses to subscriber stations in a wireless communication environment.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present invention.